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OPINION

Health, income, human rights: Many reasons to vote Nov. 6

Lynn Evans, Guest Columnist
Published 9:00 a.m. CT Oct. 26, 2018

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In a meeting with the Clarion Ledger, candidates for Mississippi's special Senate election to replace longtime Sen. Thad Cochran shared their views on health care and the role they would play if elected. Republicans Cindy Hyde-Smith and Chris McDaniel face Democrats Mike Espy and Tobey Bartee.
Mississippi Clarion Ledger

Election Day is Nov. 6, and we Mississippians will have the unique opportunity to choose every single one of our congressional representatives and determine over 100 judgeships.

Sen. Thad Cochran’s retirement triggered a special nonpartisan election that is on the ballot with our four Congressional seats, plus that of Republican Sen. Roger Wicker. His seat is being hotly contested by Democrat David Baria.

The Cochran Senate race has garnered the most attention. Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to complete Cochran’s term, but first she must beat GOP firebrand Chris McDaniel, as well as Democrats Mike Espy and Tobey Bartee. If former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Espy comes out on top, he will be Mississippi’s first black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.

If the chance to have such a big impact on Mississippi’s U.S. congressional delegation is not enough to get you to the polls, there are plenty of other reasons to go vote.

One of the biggest issues for voters is health care and their access to it.

The Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with preexisting conditions are being slowly eroded by Congress and the White House. Many Americans are already concerned they cannot get health insurance they can afford that will cover what they need.

A recent Harvard survey found more than half of Americans without health insurance who suffer a serious health event, like a car accident or a heart attack, had used up all of their savings and were now hounded by collection agencies. And a third found they were now unable to buy health insurance because of their recent health history.

A lot of Americans are very concerned about the rising federal deficit, up 17 percent to $779 billion in the red for fiscal year 2018 and double the 2015 federal deficit. President Trump has already announced he wants an across-the-board 5 percent cut in domestic spending.

Although the tax cut that caused the deficits benefited mainly the wealthiest 1 percent, the proposed spending cuts will hurt both low and middle income families the most.

A growing number of Americans are very concerned about the earth’s environment and rising temperatures causing all manner of havoc, from killer hurricanes to rising oceans threatening our coastal cities. Under the current administration, carbon emissions are actually on the rise again, as well as are dangerous pollutants like mercury and methane.

The recent horror of the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashuggi, a U.S. resident, has put a spotlight on how America’s leadership in promoting human rights has declined under the current administration. That's another reason to vote.

After the revelation that the Trump Campaign in 2016 actively worked to dissuade women, people of color and young people from voting by means of Facebook ads and posts, many of the people in those demographics are now fired up and eager to send a message at the polls. Added to them are those who see the effort in Georgia and other states to disenfranchise voters by race or ethnicity as questioning the party in power’s commitment to democracy, as USA Today put it.

Politics can be maddening, byzantine, too much swayed by monied interests, and too little connected to the lives of everyday people, but it affects our lives in very serious ways.

Access to the ballot box matters; it is how we hold our government accountable. So vote. Vote like your livelihood and well-being depend upon it. They do.